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Reviews by simracer007

50

A good sim, but it's successor is better

GTR is a sim, which means that it is designed to provide the utmost in realism to allow the gamer at home to experience what it's like to drive a real race car.

Unlike the more 'arcade' games which provide fun racing, but with unrealistic physics, GTR recreates the physics of a real race car as accurately as possible. Simulating the FIA GT Championship of 2003 means that it has some great content, including Ferraris and Porsches which are now much harder to license. This is certainly an attractive proposition to the buyer, and it is a really great sim to play.

However, GTR 1 is an old game now. It may say that it was released in September of 2012, but really that's the re-release as a digital download. It was actually released back in 2005, and unfortunately there's not much of a reason to buy it nowadays. It pains me to say this, but really it's sequel, GTR2, is a much better buy for not much more money. There are several reasons for this - GTR2 has more content included, a larger modding community and more community-made content, and (marginally) better graphics. So really, you should buy GTR2.

In saying that, GTR1 is still a great sim so if you're tight for cash or it's on sale really cheap, then it's probably still worth buying.

90

A great, hardcore sim for those seeking realism

On the face of it, this racing game may just seem like any other - but it's far from it. I am sure that there are many people out there playing run-of-the-mill "arcade" racing games such as GRID (which although impressive is far from realistic), who are craving more realism. Well to those people, I welcome them to the world of sim racing.

GTR2 by Simbin is one of the many titles based on the gMotor 2 engine. It may be outdated now, but it is a trusted physics engine which creates very realistic physics. The gMotor 2 engine is perhaps best known for powering rFactor, and it's highly expensive, industry-standard brother rFactor Pro. And when I say industry standard, I am referring to the Formula 1 industry - many F1 teams employ rFactor Pro to run their simulators.

This may sound like a review promoting rFactor rather than GTR2, however there are several problems with rFactor. Most importantly, it was designed to rely on the modding community for content, which is great except for the fact that sifting through all the rubbish to find the diamonds is a massive pain. The AI is also not very good, a problem which tends to be even worse with the community made content.

GTR2, on the other hand, has fantastic default content. The GT cars feel great to drive, realistic yet approachable. Even more importantly, GTR2 still has modding capabilities, so there is community content out there if you want to diversify. Perhaps most significantly, Simbin have authorised the creation of the Power & Glory mod, which adds many historic cars from GT Legends (another Simbin game) and others created by modders to GTR2. This mod previously required a copy of GT Legends to install it (due to the use of cars from the game), but now everyone is free to use it. GTR2's AI is much better too, and it can be a great challenge set to the right level. There are also several features completely non-existant in many other sims, such as a driving school to help new and experienced racers alike improve, as well as the ability to save mid-race, especially helpful for those wishing to tackle a 24 hour race at home, but not all in one go.

There are however a few drawbacks. Like rFactor, there is no changeable weather system (however there is a community made solution which I have not tried but some may), and the graphics are outdated in all aspects - although this does mean it will run smoothly on older or lower-end systems at high framerates. Perhaps most significantly, a wheel and pedal set is really required to properly enjoy the sim, something which is far more expensive than the game itself, however a good quality set such is really an investment to be used with other sims as well.

GTR2 may be outdated graphically, but nowadays it is a bargain that cannot be missed for those wishing to start sim racing.